Five real-world arcologies under construction

This model of Crystal Island shows the enormous scale of the development.

Foster and Partners

Happy Birthday, Paolo Soleri!
The Italian architect, who came up with the concept of the arcology
by making a portmanteau of architecture and ecology, has just hit
his 92nd birthday, so we thought a suitable celebration would be to
compile a list of five real-world arcologies currently under
construction.

For those unfamiliar with the term, an arcology is a huge
structure housing a self-sustaining community isolated from the
rest of the world. It includes residential, commercial and
agricultural facilities, allowing its residents a comfortable life
without connections to traditional urban infrastructure like sewage
or food production.

So far, so utopian. But despite decades of work on the concept, arcologies
seem to be remarkably difficult to build in the real world. So far,
mankind doesn't yet seem to have the technology or the willpower to
bring a functioning arcology into existence -- but that hasn't
stopped people from trying. Here are five real-world arcologies,
and how they're faring.

Arcosanti
Where better to start than Soleri's very own project? Arcosanti is a
planned community for 5,000 people in the Arizona desert, 70 miles
north of state capital Phoenix. Since 1970, Soleri has been working
on the project with the help of more than 6,000 people who've
visited over the years, though the population hovers between 50 and
150 at any one time, depending on the number of students and
volunteers living there.

The pace of construction has varied over the years, and there
are currently 13 major structures on the site, including a
visitor's centre, amphitheatre and bell foundry -- the latter of
which produces bronze and ceramic bells, which help fund further
construction. However, the last building was completed in 1989, and
since then, there's been rather slower progress, with the focus
placed less on construction and more on education and tourism.

Since 2001, the latest master plan for Arcosanti envisages a
huge complex called Arcosanti 5000, which would dwarf the existing buildings on the
site.

Masdar City
In Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates is a planned city, designed by Foster +
Partners. It's called Masdar City, and will rely solely on
solar and other renewable energy sources, with a principle of
zero-carbon, zero-waste.

Six square kilometres have been set aside for the development,
which will provide homes to 45,000 to 50,000 people and 1,500
businesses, including the International Renewable Energy Agency and
the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. Cars will be
banned, with transport instead provided by mass transit and
personal rapid transit systems.

Power will be provided by a solar plant, wind farms, and
geothermal energy, and the community also will house what's planned
to be the world's largest power plant. A solar-powered desalination plant will provide water, and 80 percent of the
water used will be recycled, with wastewater reused "as many times
as possible" for the purposes of crop irrigation. Biological waste
will be turned into fertiliser and used as a power source, and
industrial waste will be recycled or repurposed.

The project began in 2006 and the first phase (including
residential areas) was due to be completed in 2009, however the
impact of the global recession has delayed that significantly --
pushing it back to 2015, with the final completion now due by
2020-25.

Comments

Thank you very much for the birthday greeting and article. Paolo will be pleased. Please e-mail back a contact so that we can send you updated 3D images of the plans for Arcosanti.

Hanne Sue Kirsch

Jun 21st 2011

In reply to Hanne Sue Kirsch

Hi Hanne,I'm sorry to be so cheeky as I am not a media distributor or promotor of any kind - however I would love to see some of these 3D images of the the plans for Arcosanti myself. I am an architecture &amp; interior design student based in Manchester, UK - and I love nothing more than discovering and exploring new exciting / different buildings and designs. I have long been interested in Arcologies (the first I remember seeing was a huge tower based in Tokyo, I think named Ultima Tower, and modelled in Mt Fuji itself) and I would be immensely interested studying further into Arcology Many thanks, hoping to hear from you soonMertmcoward.greeneggdesign@gmail.comm.j.coward1@edu.salford.ac.uk

Mert

Jun 23rd 2011

When I was living in Ottawa, Canada, I went to see a display of Paolo Soleri's arcitectural designs and that was a MOMENT IN TIME which imbedded itself in my DNA'S. I say this because I have never forgotten the magnificent, well-balance architectural designs thatPaolo Soleri created. Today, while doing a search on "arc..." I came upon your web site and I am overjoyed to see that five real-world arcologies are under construction.While you are concerned with improving the urban designs of the last 100 years, and even prior to that time, I am wondering if you would be interested in also including some advanced clean technologies that would not endanger the air, waters, soils of this Wondrous Planet Earth.I await your reply,Countess